US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday called on a health insurance company to publicly explain why it raised premiums for some customers by 39 percent.
“With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent,” or 15 times faster than inflation, Sebelius said in a letter that was faxed to the insurer.
The rate hikes were “even more difficult to understand” in the light of soaring profits at Anthem Blue Cross’s parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, Sebelius said.
Wellpoint earned 2.7 billion dollars in the last quarter of 2009, she said, calling on the insurance company to “provide a detailed justification” for the increase.
“As we continue the health insurance reform debate in Washington, this announcement reminds us that too many Americans can be left with unaffordable insurance each time the rates or rules change in the private market,” Sebelius said.
Last month, plans to reform the US health care system hit a wall when the election of a Republican to the Senate Massachusetts seat long held by Ted Kennedy robbed the Democrats of their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.
President Barack Obama vowed during his campaign for the White House to reform health care and make coverage accessible to the 47 million Americans who currently do not have any, and to make coverage less of a financial drain on US workers.
Last year, the insurance industry issued a report saying that health care reforms would lead to significantly higher insurance premiums. Obama dismissed the report as “bogus”.
